Lant’s Feed Store reopens four months after deadly storm

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September 5, 2008

Anonymous The Joplin Globe Fri Sep 05, 2008, 09:13 PM CDT

By Derek Spellman

dspellman@joplinglobe.com

Before it was destroyed by the May 10 tornado, Lant’s Feed Store doubled as a social hub where people swapped gossip, kept abreast of area news and enjoyed a cup of coffee.

So perhaps it was a sign that Bill Lant found the coffee maker virtually intact after the storm tore apart the store and scattered its contents.

“How that was possible, we don’t know,” Lant said.

Lant’s rebuilt store, complete with the surviving coffee maker, re-opens today at the same site, near the intersection of Missouri Highway 43 and Iris Road. Although the feed store has been rebuilt, the bridal shop that once accompanied it has not.

The intersection highlights what residents and officials have seen in other parts of the county hit by the tornado: There are signs of recovery amid vestiges of destruction.

Across the street from Lant’s Feed Store, a new home is being built next to the ruins of an old one.

Lant said it sometimes feels strange to look around and find the houses he was accustomed to seeing for years either gone or being rebuilt.

“In some respects, it seems like it (the storm) was yesterday. In others, it seems like forever,” Lant said.

County survey

Gary Roark, the Newton County Emergency Management director, said he plans to continue with a survey of the county next week to gauge how much debris still needs to be removed. Some homeowners disposed of their debris by burying it, burning it or hauling it away.

But Roark did say he has driven through pockets where storm-wrecked houses have not been touched. He speculated that some of those property owners await final settlements from their insurance companies or from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

At the historic Ritchey Mansion in Newtonia, meanwhile, repairs are virtually complete.

The tornado tore off all three of the mansion’s chimneys, part of the brick in the front and several large chunks of the roof. It also inflicted other exterior and interior damage. All of the repair work had been complete last week, save for some painting and recarpeting, said Kay Hively, a member of the Newtonia Battlefields Protection Association, which owns the Civil War-era home.

Much of the damage to the building will be covered by the association’s insurance, but volunteers also have helped clean up the mansion’s surrounding property or donated money to defray costs not absorbed by insurance.

The association will likely start cleaning up the debris on the adjoining battlefields in the winter.

“It’s been a remarkable adventure to say the least,” Hively said.

By contrast, the Newtonia City Hall that was flattened by the tornado will not be rebuilt barring some outside help, said Mayor George Philliber.

The village did not have any insurance on the building when the tornado hit, Philliber said. A public-disaster declaration from the federal government might have made the village eligible for assistance, but both an initial request for that declaration and subsequent appeal have been denied.

“We can’t build anything without help,” Philliber said. “I am hoping we get some help, but it doesn’t look good.”

Newton County Commissioners late last month sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security, which encompasses FEMA, asking the agency to reconsider its decision to deny public disaster declaration. The public declaration would have allowed Newton County to be reimbursed for the cost of debris removal and disposal, and would have allowed Newtonia, for example, to seek assistance in rebuilding its City Hall.

Earlier this year, the state requested a public-disaster declaration for Newton, Jasper and Barry counties in the wake of the tornado that killed 16 people in Missouri, destroyed 154 homes and ravaged scores of others, and inflicted almost $6.2 million in damage and cleanup costs to public infrastructure.

Newton County bore the brunt of the casualties and the damage. The storm also killed seven people in neighboring Ottawa County, Okla., and caused widespread devastation in Picher, Okla., and in nearby communities.

That declaration in Missouri was denied because, under the formula employed by FEMA, the counties would have needed to sustain $6.94 million in cleanup costs and damage in the public sector to qualify, based on their population.

Roark said that “in all honesty, I would be surprised” if FEMA reconsidered.

He said once his survey of the county is complete, he would apprise the county commissioners about what cleanup work remains so they can determine how to proceed.

Ceremony set

Lant’s Feed Store will reopen at 8 a.m. today. The event includes a presentation from state Rep. Marilyn Ruestman, R-Joplin, at 11 a.m., followed by a barbecue and celebration.